[nmglug] dist-update w/o upgrading Firefox

[Akkana Peck]

Brian O'Keefe writes:
>    I'd like to run "apt dist-update" but I don't want to upgrade FF as I'm
>    using FF52 ESR as any newer version doesn't support some add-ons I want
>    to keep. Hence I never upgrade it though if the add-ons maintainers
>    adapt to the new FF I certainly will too.

I'm assuming you mean dist-upgrade, since dist-update isn't a valid
apt command (at least on my system, it says Invalid operation).

You can tell apt to "hold" a package, so it won't install a new
version on top of what you already have:

sudo aptitude hold firefox-esr

(or whatever the package name is that you want to hold.
Apparently you can also use sudo apt-mark hold firefox-esr,
if you don't have aptitude installed, though personally I've only
set holds with aptitude.

You should probably hold all the firefox-esr-related packages
you have installed, so get a list with

aptitude search firefox-esr | grep '^i'
or
apt list --installed 'firefox-esr*'

to see if you need to hold any additional packages.

I don't know for sure that any of this will work with the GUI
update manager you're using, but it works for apt-get dist-upgrade
from the command line.

You can see your held packages with

aptitude search '~ahold'

        ...Akkana